SINGAPORE - Internet users can now use their biometric passports to verify themselves on LinkedIn in one of the most stringent forms of identity verification deployed by a social media platform.

The optional feature, launched in Singapore in March as part of a phased global roll-out, is aimed at curbing scams, as well as misinformation and poor conduct on the platform, by holding users accountable.

Critics said that the feature is welcome but may have limited success since it is optional.

Government identification-verified user accounts display a verification badge to signal to others that their account is authentic.

The objective is to inspire confidence in job-hunting even as job scams rose to become the most prevalent scam type here, with 9,914 cases reported in 2023, involving more than $135 million, according to police statistics.

There was a 19 per cent rise in job searches on LinkedIn in 2023 compared with 2022, said Mr Wei Tu, LinkedIn’s vice-president of engineering, trust engineering and operations.

He told The Straits Times: “By providing verified information on profiles, we are fostering a trusted community and helping give professionals, recruiters and job seekers the confidence that who they’re connecting with, and the content they come across, is trusted and authentic.”

As an incentive to users, LinkedIn is offering to boost verified accounts by 60 per cent on average to make them appear more in searches.

Users will have to use biometric passports equipped with near-field communication (NFC) chips, which wirelessly share small amounts of data when two devices are tapped together.

This form of identification – one containing biometric data and digital signatures – is harder to fake than traditional paper documents, said Mr Tu.

Biometric passports are used in more than 170 countries.

According to the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organisation, at least a billion e-passports are in use as at 2020.

Passports issued by the Singapore authorities since 2006 contain an electronic chip that holds critical information that is printed on the passport’s data page.

By 2025, LinkedIn aims to hit 100 million verified accounts from its user base of roughly one billion. Some 30 million members have been given a verification badge linked to their account, said Mr Tu.

How it works

Passport verification works only on LinkedIn’s mobile app.

It requires the use of the camera feature in the LinkedIn app and the smartphone’s in-built NFC scanner to scan the passport’s photo page and NFC chip, and take a live selfie. Verification is facilitated in-app by identification company Persona, which provides verification results to LinkedIn under a partnership.

Persona’s privacy policy states that it shares an image of the user’s identity document with personal information blurred except for the user’s name and portrait.

To confirm the user’s identity, Persona’s system checks if the face in the selfie matches the one in the passport photo using facial geometry. Users’ ID data and selfie will be retained by Persona for 30 days and biometric data, such as the facial geometry extracted from an uploaded image, is deleted once a user is verified.

Verification needs to be done only once.

With the user’s permission, Persona will share his or her full name and passport’s issuing country with LinkedIn for verification, said LinkedIn in its set-up page.

The feature is available to users of at least 100 countries, including Japan, Australia and nations in South-east Asia.

Cyber-security firm Simulation Software and Technology director Ori Sasson told ST that the use of government ID, while more secure than e-mails and phone numbers, could be too heavy a requirement for most casual social media users.

Mr Sasson said: “I can see (the feature) being useful for recruiters or promoters who do unsolicited outreach... But others might be deterred.”

Stone Forest IT’s director of security solutions Thoman Foong said it might be a struggle for the feature to be widely adopted since it is not mandatory, but added that more companies could require job seekers to verify themselves this way. He said passport authentication makes it trickier for fraudsters to forge, but that users may feel it infringes on their privacy rights.

Mr Andrew Bud, the chief executive of cyber-security firm iProov, said passports are among the highest standards of mainstream authentication, adding that verification using government-issued ID should become the standard on online platforms to build trust.

Other modes of verification

LinkedIn’s feature adds to a list of platforms that use government ID to verify users’ identities to curb scams and accounts run by automated programs that post content or inflate likes.

E-commerce users are urged only to transact with sellers whose identities have been verified against government-issued documentation, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in its annual E-commerce Marketplace Transaction Safety Ratings results published on April 10.

Verified accounts are typically labelled with a “tick” symbol.

Shopee received a full score in 2024’s ratings after it had fully implemented government ID verification for all sellers, joining Amazon, Lazada and Qoo10, said MHA.

Since 2023, classifieds platform Carousell has implemented mandatory Singpass verification before sellers can list items in the property and ticket and vouchers categories as a response to scams.

Singpass verification is also required to withdraw money from a Carousell account to a user’s bank account.

Government ID is not required for property listings in foreign markets where Carousell operates, as not all have a system like Singpass, a Carousell spokesman told ST, adding that the platform is researching verification methods elsewhere.

For now, Carousell users are limited to listings within their own countries, unless they create separate Carousell accounts in different markets, with a local phone number registered.

Government-issued ID is a high barrier to entry for users, many of whom are casual users, said Carousell’s spokesman, adding that a significant number of users polled in 2023 indicated that they were not keen on such stringent verification.

The spokesman added: “Nonetheless, we are currently studying and exploring various options when it makes more sense to deploy this in a more targeted approach for high-risk scenarios.”

Facebook requires only an e-mail to approve an account, which can be used to sell and buy items on its Marketplace platform that has been plagued with e-commerce scams.

Meta was called out by Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling in Parliament for not working with the authorities to fight scams on its platforms.

MHA said in an advisory that users should learn more about a Facebook Marketplace seller by looking out for common contacts, and review their Marketplace activities and ratings that they have received from past deals.

As at 2023, Facebook and Instagram users can pay for a verification badge on their accounts if they are able to provide government ID and a video selfie.